


untangle my heart

by mariette



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2001), Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, F/M, Fluff, Pining, Romance, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 12:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19812688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariette/pseuds/mariette
Summary: Kyo gets frustrated with his feelings. Tohru makes it easier.





	untangle my heart

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with some more of that good good Kyoru content. If you have suggestions for a one-shot send it to [my tumblr!](https://lovelytaakitz.tumblr.com/)

For a boy who is clueless when it comes to feelings, he sure does feel _a lot._ Yeah, he understands his anger and recognizes that the easiest. Anything beyond frustration is a mystery. He doesn’t understand _those_ feelings or really know what to do about them, but he does know why they’re very confusing sometimes.

He’s talked to plenty of girls. Hell, he still does what with being around Tohru’s friends all the time. But that’s not the _same._ When he’s around others he’s quiet unless provoked, brooding but still interested. However when Tohru’s full attention is on him he melts.

He catches her smile and the world isn’t as loud anymore. She’s always smiling. It’s curious to him, what smiling like that could feel like. Maybe he’d understand it more than just on the surface. And then his chest stings.

Sometimes his heart feels like it compresses. As if it was made out of string and when he feels something too fiercely those strings tangle a little more. The strings are colored. His heart, mostly red. Mostly angry. Some blue, green, orange, purple. But so much red. With so many different shades and knots it’s unclear where one color ends and the other begins.

It’s _fucking_ frustrating. Impossible.

“Kyo?” he hears.

He looks up and Tohru is standing in front of him. Wasn’t she just talking to Yuki? How’d she get over by him so fast? He was a good ten feet away, waiting for them so they could start walking home.

“Hmm? Sorry. I was…” he trails off. He should probably keep the details of what he was thinking to himself. “I was just thinking about a test I had today.” He turns away from her.

“Oh! Well, I’m sure you did great,” she says. The excitement in her voice is so genuine, he can’t help but believe her. That he _did_ do really well on his test. There’s not even a fucking test. He groans to himself.

“Well, anyways,” she begins. She moves up to his side and they walk together. “Yuki is staying late to work with the student council. Guess it’s just you and me walking together.”

Now _that_ is some good news. The less time he has to spend with Yuki the happier he is. The strings pull, his chest stings.

“Kyo are you okay?”

“Huh?”

He’s got his fists clenched, teeth locked together, a familiar anger radiating off of him. It’s seething and he’s most intimate with it. How _pitiful._

But her voice drips with concern. He looks at her and she’s worried. So he relaxes his shoulders. His teeth unclench as he let’s a staggered breath pass his lips. It’s easier to do that with her around because she’ll mimic it. She’s good at that.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Stop worrying so much, dummy.”

Her surprise turns into a giggle. “I guess I can’t help it.”

Walking home never takes long and it’s been mere minutes when they reach the front door.

“Tohru!” Shigure yells from the inside of the house. He pops his head out from behind the door.

“Oh! Yes?” she asks, turning her attention to him.

“You received a parcel in the mail today.”

Tohru beams a smile, Kyo stares.

He thinks about her cheeks dusted a beautiful pink color. His fingers ache to press against them, wanting to confirm if they’re as soft as they look. He lays his fingers firmly against his thigh. Her smile connects with her eyes in a way he’s only ever seen her do. And it drives him fucking crazy. Because her smile is contagious and he feels it in his heart.

The strings they pull in a way that knocks the breath out of him. It happens as if it were such a natural action. Like cause and effect. _Every action has an equal and opposite reaction._

A rainbow after the rain, the night turning to day. Kyo has to smile when Tohru does. It’s only natural.

“I didn’t think it would come this quickly! I’m so excited!”

She bounces happily on the balls of her feet.

“I ordered a small sewing kit,” she explains.

“A sewing kit?” Shigure asks. Tohru nods her head.

“Mhm, I ordered it to fix the holes in your clothes!”

“Oh?” Shigure’s interest level rises with his voice. Kyo is already blushing, he can feel it.

“Now Kyo, don’t you think it’s a little much asking our sweet Tohru to do that for you?”

Those strings, they’re tangled. _But most of them are red._

“Shut up, old man! I haven’t asked her to do anything. Besides, you’re the one who suggests she cleans the deck on her hands and knees. She can use a mop like everyone else does!”

Shigure says, “Everyone knows you get those hard to reach places like that.” at the same time Tohru says “I really don’t mind…”

“Ugh whatever. I have homework to do,” he says. He pushes past both of them and goes up the stairs into his room. Stupid dog putting his nose where it doesn’t belong.

He stays in his room until dusk working on school work like he had said.

At some point he hears Yuki get home, from there he hears Tohru serving dinner. And after that he watches her shadow pace under his door. No doubt his food in her hands. Ultimately she leaves without knocking or saying a word. He wonders for a moment what would have happened had she come in.

She would have something delicious in her hands, she would ask if he was hungry. He’d say not really but take it from her anyways. She might ask what he’s doing, he’d always tell her.

If she asks _how_ he’s doing he doesn’t answer. He wants to tell her but how can he put something into words he doesn’t even understand? How could he possibly tell her what’s going on?

He hears something thud in the room next to his. Tohru’s room. It takes seconds for him to get there and open the door.

She’s on the floor tears pooling in her eyes. There’s tons of supplies around her, certainly from her sewing kit.

“Kyo? I didn’t bother you did I? I’m sorry, I guess I’m just a little frustrated with this. I’ll be quieter,” she says.

Kyo looks down at her hands. A ball of different colored threads are tangled in between her fingers. His breath hitches in his throat.

A lot of the time he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He reacts too passionately sometimes, says the wrong things, fights with the wrong person. His thoughts often too chaotic to control.

But Tohru is _crying_ and that’s a problem. Luckily, it’s one he knows how to fix.

So he walks to her. He sits cross legged in front of her, she sniffs and looks up at him. The threads are almost impossible to separate. Impossible.

He reaches out anyways, pulling them away and quietly concentrates on removing them.

He pulls a single golden string from the bunch and notices a knot tied in the middle of it. Every color thread tied in between it. This is what’s tangling them all together. He carefully pulls out the knot and the colored strings fall lightly in his lap. All untangled, all fixed.

“Kyo! Thank you so much!”

Her smile returns and just as nature has intended it, so does his. “I would have never been able to untangle that on my own. Thank you so much for helping me.”

“It’s not a big deal. I don’t mind helping you,” he begins. The golden thread still in between his thumb and index finger. He looks down watching it shimmer against the light. Without thinking too hard on it he lifts his arm and places the thread in her hair. It falls into her face dangling from her fringe and onto her cheeks. “You’re really something special you know that?”

Before he sets his hand back into his lap he brushes the tips of his fingers against the string. He feels her cheek. It is soft.

She catches his hand before he pulls away. She takes the gold thread, grabs his wrist, and ties it around him like a bracelet.

He looks up at her quizzically, but she’s smiling. Always smiling.

“You’re special too, Kyo.”

There’s a knot in his heart. Tohru untangles it.


End file.
